The Brooklyn Rail

1

Shoving my shoulder  against a door that says PULL;

on my way out I’ll remember to try pulling.

Back home in the suburbs I was sapped by the carpets.

Now there is nothing soft enough in my apartment.

The sky was my own though it has its law.

Forever unfair are the uses of love.

First God said fiercely, YOU CAN’T LOVE EVERYONE.

Then, hang it up, Sally, you can’t love EVERYone.

I can leave a start sailing toward its lost name,

put perpendicular memory drops down.

2

Fear between a thousand specks in the huge painting:

What lines might they form if my eye is not careful.

Noah’s was a lovely story for children

Until I was so many bodies in the water.

They didn’t stage an accident they arranged

for an accident with the cameras rolling.

You had to know the blackened heart in me was yours.

I’ll find your muddled fingerprints are everywhere.

At the emergency entrance to Saint Vincent’s

Hospital, there is always blood on the sidewalk.

3

Jacob ran a matchbox truck over my toes

up one leg, across the knees, down the other leg.

The passport clerk interrupts: the emergency

is not someone sick but your flight leaves Friday.

When her little girl cries and Dianna asks

What’s the matter, she answers I CRYING!

In his new life Joshep Coenell must be small, Strange

little changes keep appearing in his boxes.

I never understood why on a still hill –

side, one leaf was whirling mutely in circles.